KEITH Alexander has quashed rumours that the club will be bullied into selling off their key players this January.

With each transfer window comes the possibility that smaller clubs’ star men will be picked up by sides higher up and with more resources, but Alexander said: "We need to maintain our league status and push on, so losing our best players wouldn’t help that too much."

Macc are one of the clubs most at risk of losing key men such as John Rooney and Izak Reid. Before a fractured ankle cut short his season, Hamza Bencherif could also have been seen as a young talent with the potential to be an excellent signing for a club higher up the .

"But I’ve not heard anything, nothing whatsoever," revealed the Silkmen boss. "I don’t expect there to be much movement at all.

"I hear these rumours that a lot of people are interested in this player or that player, and it’s only to be expected because we’ve got a lot of good young players, but we’ve not had any contact about our lads.

"There is always a worry that bigger clubs will come in for your key players but I won’t be letting anyone go unless it’s too good a deal."

Alexander is hardly in a position to sell, with injuries to Bencherif and fellow midfielder Lee Bell.

Ahead of Macc’s Boxing Day trip to Shrewsbury, he said: "Belly’s not going to be fit, we’ll have to see who is available when we train later in the week."